


Trouble Sleeping

by redorbit



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, Gen, a bit of angst, underrated pairing tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-18 19:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17586884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redorbit/pseuds/redorbit
Summary: Hyejoo has trouble sleeping at times.





	Trouble Sleeping

 

"Unnie, how many times do I have to say this- STOP PUTTING YOUR CLOTHES ON THE DAMN LADDER."

 

Hyejoo fumed while staring heatedly at the older girl sprawled on the lower bunk with her earphones plugged in and staring at the screen on her phone. She seemed oblivious to Hyejoo's pain and, with two swift steps, Hyejoo had pulled out her earphones, startling Sooyoung much to her annoyance.

 

"Excuse me, but you just had to interrupt at the bridge of Red Velvet's 'One of These Nights', which should be considered a crime, by the way," Sooyoung glared at her and roughly snatched the earphones back from her.

 

Hyejoo merely rolled her eyes in response and wordlessly pointed at the clothes hanging on the ladder. Sooyoung's eyes followed the direction in which her index finger was pointing to and seemed to finally make the connection as to why Hyejoo was annoyed.

 

"Ah. So that's what's got you riled up?" she grunted and reached for her jean shorts and shirt that she had slung over the second ring of the ladder due to habit. Plucking them off of it, she threw them lazily onto her bed and raised an eyebrow, "There. Happy? I don't see why you couldn't have just pushed it off of the ladder. Like, it literally is that easy."

 

Hyejoo didn't even bother to offer a response and instead opted to climb up the ladder immediately and onto her bed, plunking down with a sigh and closing her eyes shut. She was exhausted and didn't really feel like having a petty argument with Sooyoung over something as dumb as Sooyoung's questionable organisational habits.

 

Practice had been tough; they had had to learn new choreographies for their upcoming comeback and safe to say it had NOT been easy what with some of the members constantly messing up and causing the entire group to redo the whole thing at least 5 times. She couldn't really blame them, not really, because everyone was understandably tired with their hectic schedules which seemed to turn more strenuous as the days passed. Besides, not everyone had Hyejoo's capacity to function well despite looking perpetually done with life 24/7; Hyejoo actually considers this one of her many talents, even if she wouldn't EVER admit it aloud.

 

She laid there in silence for a while with an arm slung over her eyes, thinking about nothing in particular, before the serene atmosphere broke when Sooyoung started belting out the lyrics to some song Hyejoo couldn't recognise. She let out a sigh of frustration before leaning over her bed to stare daggers at Sooyoung, who seemed in the midst of performing at an opera show: hand on her chest, eyes clutched, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, the whole nine- a sight which would have tickled even Hyejoo's funny bone had she not been so utterly and incomprehensibly tired.

 

"Unnie-" no response, "Unnie!" she shouted and even threw one of the many plushies on her bed that she had received from fans toward Sooyoung's head, successfully getting her attention.

 

"Oh, damn. I'm so sorry, Hyejoo. Did I do it again?" Sooyoung laughed and offered her an apologetic smile, grabbing the plushie and handing it back to Hyejoo to which she made no move to take.

 

She stared blankly at Sooyoung before shaking her head and grunted, "Not that I don't appreciate your vocal prowess, unnie, but it's midnight, we spent the entire day practicing, I'm actually starving and to top that all off, I feel the start of a migraine coming so would you PLEASE tone it down."

 

She went back to lying down on her bed and pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering how on earth was Sooyoung older than her when it felt like Hyejoo was the one constantly nagging instead of the other way around. Normally, Jiwoo and Chaewon, who shared a room with them but were currently lazing about in the lounge room with the other members, would merely smile and laugh in amusement at their antics which only added to Hyejoo's nerves. Shaking her head, she turned on her side to face the wall and prepared to fall asleep, deciding to not dwell too much on it as it was a common occurrence for the both of them by now.

 

Her eyes had barely shut when she drifted off into a restless slumber.

 

-

It was dark.

 

Hyejoo never liked the dark.

 

It always felt like there was something constantly lurking in the inky blackness, bordering at the very edge where light couldn't reach, waiting patiently to swallow its unassuming victims whole.

 

Then, she was running.

 

She wasn't entirely sure as to why, either. One second she was standing still, the next she felt prompted to run, as if her life depended on it. She could barely see a foot ahead of her as she blindly stumbled through the darkness when she heard it: someone was calling out to her. She'll be damned if she even had half a mind to run toward it, every inch of her screaming to go the other way. But it seemed like no matter where she went, the voice followed her, only getting closer by the second.

 

Until, she heard it whisper into her ear,

 

"Hyejoo."

 

-

 

Her eyes shot open, mouth opened in a gasp, and her body shook as she trembled.

 

'Another nightmare' she thought bitterly.

 

The stress of everything as of late must be taking a toll on her body because the nightmares seemed to come more often now. To be honest, this was actually one of the better ones as she had experienced worse nightmares that can make anyone's skin crawl.

 

As if on cue, the tears started flowing freely down her cheeks in a silent stream and she pressed her palms to her eyes in a desperate attempt to stop it despite knowing fully well that it wouldn't work. Immediately, she rose from her back and crawled her way toward the ladder, climbing down effortlessly to stand next to the headrest of Sooyoung's bed. The clock on the wall indicated that it was a quarter to two in the morning and the other two girls were already in their beds across the room, snoring lightly.

 

"Unnie," she called out quietly to the older girl who seemed sound asleep.

 

Fortunately for her, Sooyoung was a rather light sleeper and she instantly hummed in response and opened her eyes in a dazed state to look at Hyejoo. She offered her a small smile and said in a low, husky voice affected by sleep, "Trouble sleeping?"

 

Hyejoo gave a small nod and Sooyoung instantly made room for her to climb in, scooting nearer to the wall and patting the empty space beside her. Without hesitation, she made to lie next to the older girl and Sooyoung pulled the blanket up and over them as they got comfortable with Sooyoung's familiar green apple scent washing over Hyejoo's senses and effectively calming the girl down. She laid on her side facing the older girl and felt Sooyoung's arms wrap around her waist in a reassuring hug, rubbing circles on the small of her back.

 

"It's alright. I'm here, Hyejoo."

 

At those words, Hyejoo's defences came crumbling down and she buried her head in the nook of Sooyoung's neck, weeping silently. Her body shook with the effort of keeping her sobs in as she struggled to keep it down, not wanting to wake Jiwoo and Chaewon. Sooyoung just tightened her hold and pulled the younger girl nearer to her, resting her chin on the top of her head, letting her cry out her fears, her frustrations, with no inhibitions or judgement on her part.

 

Only after a while when it felt like her crying had ceased completely did Sooyoung lift her head gently to take a look at Hyejoo- the younger girl had cried herself to sleep, again, Sooyoung had mused in dread- and saw the dried up tears on the girls cheeks coupled with the bags under her eyes which seemed even more prominent now that Sooyoung was able to take a closer look.

 

She sighed and slowly ran a hand through Hyejoo's hair, hoping that the gesture would be able to help the girl have a good night's sleep without having to experience another nightmare.

 

She knew idol life was hard; she was sure all of them did and knew what they had signed up for when they became members of LOOΠΔ. But that didn't make anything any easier, especially when she had to see the younger members struggle to keep up with their seemingly never ending schedules of fan meets, concerts and whatnot on top of having to maintain their grades in school. So she did whatever she could to help make the days seem easier for them- be it waking up early despite not having to in order to make sure that the girls were eating well by preparing breakfast for them or making up their beds whenever they rushed out of the dorms to school. The unnie line actually had an unspoken rule to help the younger girls keep up- Haseul helped them with homework, Kahei did the laundry and kept their rooms cleaned, Jinsol snuck in the younger girls’ favourite snacks whenever they were feeling down and et cetera.

 

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Hyejoo shifted in her sleep with her brows furrowed, seemingly in a restless state, and Sooyoung instinctively moved her free hand that was initially stroking her hair to cup her face, thumb gently easing the line between her eyebrows. It worked and Hyejoo's face relaxed significantly as she moved to snuggle deeper into the older girl’s embrace, causing her to smile affectionately. She planted a soft kiss on her forehead before deciding to go back to sleep after making sure that Hyejoo showed no further signs of unease and restlessness.

 

Closing her eyes, all she heard were the gentle sounds of Hyejoo's breathing before she was lulled off into sleep.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello~


End file.
